I. Field of Use
The present application relates to battery-operated battery-powered electronic devices. More specifically, the present application relates to a method and apparatus for communicating with battery-operated battery-powered electronic devices.
II. Description of the Related Art
Battery-powered electronic devices are prevalent in today's modern world. Battery power is needed in mobile applications or where a constant source of power is not available. In some cases, these battery-powered electronic devices each comprise an RF receiver for receiving commands or information from a transmission source. For example, in a home application, an electronic window shade may contain an RF or infrared receiver for receiving commands from a handheld, wireless remote control device. In another home application, a wireless thermostat may comprise a receiver for receiving a command to transmit a sensed room temperature to a central monitoring panel.
It is well-known to power-cycle battery-powered electronic devices some battery-powered devices in order to increase battery life. For example, an battery-powered electronic device may operate with most of its circuits de-energized, or in a low power-consuming state, while its receiver operates as normal to determine when a signal is received for action by the battery-powered electronic device. In another example, the receiver itself is additionally power-cycled to save even more power. In this example, some form of synchronization with a transceiver is desirable, because the smaller the duty cycle, the less likely it is that the receiver will actually receive a signal that is intended for it. The problem with synchronization is that it adds cost and complexity to the battery-powered electronic device.
It would be desirable to enable power savings realized by power-cycling while eliminating the need to provide transmitter-receiver synchronization.